There’s been so much mysticism around meditation. Along with that, a lot of weird claims of what meditation can do for people.
I’ve stripped it down, and have a new way of looking at meditation, so as to reshape your mindset towards it.
DON’T CALL IT MEDIATION. CALL IT “BRAIN TRAINING”.
In a typical meditation, you find a chant, and you repeat it over and over again. Why? Because it helps focus your mind. Your mind is a thought producing machine, and generally, that’s a good thing. But if you want it to work better, you have to practice focusing it. Just like if you want to get stronger, you need to do specific, targeted exercises.
This is literally no different than that. Repeat the chant/mantra, over and over again. When your mind wanders, bring it back to the chant/mantra. It will wander many times. So you’ll be bringing it back from the wandering to the chant/mantra many times. The more you practice that, the more you can quiet your mind down on a dime’s notice, and think clearly.
It’s as simple as that. You are training your brain to be able to go from it’s natural state of always producing thoughts, to dead-still quiet. This takes a lot of training and practice. And like with anything, the more your practice, the better you get at it.
Will it improve your health? Sure, but don’t focus on that. Will it improve your ability to communicate? Sure, but don’t worry about that. Will it improve your production and execution? Sure, but don’t worry about that!
Just focus on training your brain to get stronger focus. There are plenty of benefits, but don’t get fixated on them.
Many times, various meditation styles/groups/societies/cultures set up some rather rigid norms. They sell these norms as a way indoctrinate you. I think all of that is bogus. You don’t have to do it for a specified amount of time, or at specified times of days. Hogwash! Do whenever you can, however you can. You don’t need to be in a quiet room. You don’t need to be sitting. You don’t need to even close your eyes. You are training your brain to focus, by practicing it. That’s it! Nothing more, nothing less.
Find a chant/mantra, repeat it over and over again, and bring your mind back on to it, after it has wandered off. That’s all that it is. It’s brain training. And it has no copyright. It has no ownership. It has no patent number.
My own perspective is this:
It is better to get into the mode by doing it every moment you can, than to have hour long sit down sessions. Do it while driving. Do it while shopping. Do it while doing the dishes. Do it while taking a shower. If you build brain training into your day-to-day actions, you will be not only strengthening it, but you will be making into a way of life.
Having designated times to sit and meditate is fine, but then you know what happens with that, right? “Oh, shoot, I have to skip my meditation session, because I had this urgent thing to tend to.”
I’m here to tell you that that is not the only way. Right now, say the word “ayem” over and over again as your chant/meditation. You can say it in a variety of ways, such as:
Ayem
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayem
Ayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyem
Ayeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeem
Ayemmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Ayem
Ayem Ayem
Ayem Ayem Ayem
Ayem Ayem
Ayem
Do you see? Just do that for a few minutes/seconds/whatever. Do it every chance you get. That’s it. You are training your brain by practicing quieting it and focusing.
Hopefully I have helped dispelled some myths, and provided some greater clarity on what this stuff is. Brain training.